Monday, May 13, 2013

Kue Sus, our Friday Evening Treat.

Friday evening.My children arrived home earlier than other normal school days. 1.5 hours earlier.As soon as they've arrived home, usually they will do everything quickly, without any reminder nor instruction; from cleaning their school bags, emptying their lunch boxes, having shower, drinking afternoon milk (and asking for snacks), ...before doing what they really wait for. My teen daughter wants to watch the 3 PM show at Cartoon Network, and my 'not-so-little-anymore' boy chooses to be busy playing Xbox game.... That happens almost every Friday in our home.

Before they arrive home, usually I start to plan preparing 'sweets' for them.
Something quick and easy snack is the 'target', and not a 'first time' trial. For the last couple of weeks, the sweets were dominated with something chocolaty; brownies and chocolate molten cake is the favorite. So, this time I decided to prepare other sweets with no chocolate on the ingredients. Then I realized that it has been a while I didn't bake Kue Sus, 'choux pastry with custard filling' that very familiar in this country.

Since my very first trial to make Kue Sus, I always use this recipe that I got from a 'very old edition' of Femina Magazine. I'm not exactly sure which year it was published; 14-15 years ago I guess.
With the simple ingredients that always available in my kitchen cupboard, I never fail baking this delicious treat. For me, this is exactly the type of Kue Sus that my Mom used to make when her children were still young.

So, after almost 2-3 years I haven't made this treat, I decided to serve it as my children Friday snack. Both of my children are crazy of custard. So I let them to put the filling by themselves, and enjoying through the evening. I made it a lot, almost 3 dozens. My husband was out of the city... and those dozens were gone on the next morning. The kids love it! so do I...

Little tips that I need to share:
* I used two steel spoons to shape the round pastry, in this way my mom shaped the dough, not using nozzle. I like to see the 'natural shape' of the pastry instead of the uniform 'star' shape.
* I baked the the pastry for 15 minutes in 200 C, then I lowered down the temperature to 160 C for another 10 minutes baking.
Why not 30 minutes? Because I made the pastry balls smaller than the average size (diameter 4 cm). It needs shorter baking time.
The first 200 C is the time for the dough to puff up, than another 10 minutes baking is to strengthen the pastry structure, to hold the hollow that have been formed. Same case when I'm frying 'kerupuk jange' or 'tahu sumedang'. ha..ha... sounds too engineering.

So... that's all for now.
I don't want to make you confuse reading my babble.

Choux Pastry, the'skin'.
1. Boil water, add margarine and sugar. Cook over low heat until the margarine melts. Add the flour, stirring continuously until the dough is cooked and smooth*. Remove from the heat and let the steam is gone.
2. Gradually add 2 eggs into the dough, beating well between each addition, until well combined, and producing a soft dough.
3. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag with a star nozzle. Pipe rounds/circular onto baking trays that rubbed with margarine and sprinkled with flour.
Leave enough space among them***. Bake in a hot oven temperature of 200 C for 30 minutes, remove from heat. Set aside.